Amnesty International has been at odds with the way the administration of President Bush has conducted the war on terrorism. Schulz said the tactics that the U.S. has used to fight terrorism has hurt the country's reputations.

He mentioned the photos of tortured prisoners from the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. "We say we stand up for human rights yet we have come to be associated, by millions of people, with these horrible pictures," Schulz said.

Such U.S. actions, he said, lead many people to the conclusion that "it is a war against Islam not against terrorism.''

Schulz claims there are no more than several thousand active terrorists in the world. But the terror cells need financial support, a country to be based in and a pool of recruits. With its actions, the U.S. can go a long way toward eroding that support system.

"By refraining from mistreating Muslims in jail, by upholding the
Geneva Convention
(treaty sections) that support human rights, and by stopping the torture by U.S. interrogators, we convince potential recruits that they have no future with terrorists,'' he said.

Throughout his career, he's been outspoken in his opposition to the death penalty and his support for women's and gay rights and racial justice.

He has received numerous awards for his work and The New York Review of Books described him as the person who "has done more than anyone else in the American human rights movement to make human rights issues known in the United States."

Schulz is visiting Danbury to help dedicate the new fellowship hall of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation on Clapboard Ridge Road in Danbury.

The hall culminates a 10-year effort by the congregation to move to a larger, more centralized location in the region. The former fellowship hall was in Redding.

"Having someone like Schulz speak on the problem of human rights after 9/11 clearly gives the message to the community that we are concerned about human rights issues in the community and the world," said the Rev.
Linda Hansen
, head of the Danbury congregation.

"We're here," she said. "This is what we care about. We hope to work with others in the community on these issues."

Members of the three-year-old Amnesty International Club at
Danbury High School
were excited to learn that Schulz would be coming to speak, said club president,
Michelle Faber
, a junior.

The 25-member club is leading the school's efforts to raise money for a Mississippi high school devastated by Hurricane Katrina. The club also is working with other school groups on a human rights awareness campaign in April.

The high school club looks to Amnesty's Web site for issues and letter writing advice, Faber said.

"It's really opened up our eyes to what things are going on outside our sheltered world,'' Faber said. "It's good to see that we may be able to make a difference. At least we can try."

In a school with a diverse population, international issues are more personal, said Danbury High senior
Cecilia Burns
said.

"In our first meeting of this year, we each talked about why we joined," Burns said. "A lot said they were against the death penalty. Some wanted to raise awareness about domestic violence. Everyone is there so we can try to make a different in this often confusing world of ours."

Schulz said such grassroots efforts are what Amnesty International is all about. "We believe human rights will be fully realized when human rights are grounded in public acts of local citizens,'' he said.